“No illegal immigration – protect our children.” The January Fact Sheet from gov.uk on 2023’s measures against illegal migration includes a “Small Boats Operational Command” with a staff of 500 people to tackle “illegal migration by small boats”. Summary statistics for small-boat arrivals can be found on WP. Stopping the boats was one of the government’s “five key priorities” in March, 2023 (Reuters) and included in the Bill approved in July (gov.uk). The plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was declared illegal by the Supreme Court in November (Reuters).
This small sticker on the Mersey Street street-sign is in east Belfast. The source of the need to “protect children” is unknown; the attacker outside Gaelscoıl Choláıste Mhuıre in Dublin in November was originally from Algeria (it is not known how he arrived) and a naturalised Irish citizen since 2014 (WP).
Here is a completed mural from the Painting For Palestine project (Fb) on the International Wall, Divis Street, Belfast, showing a man holding an injured child against a backdrop of razed buildings in Gaza. It is now 125 days since Israel began its war on Gaza in response to the Hamas attacks on October 7th and images of parents carrying their dead and injured children, and of the devastation of Gaza’s buildings, are now all too common – here is an Al Jazeera gallery from December.
Since the October 7th attack by Hamas and the subsequent Israeli invasion of Gaza, the number of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel has gone up from about 5,000 to about 9,000, including about 3,500 prisoners held under what is called “administrative detention” or what would be known here as “internment without trial”. (Figures for the last fifteen years are available at HaMoked and at B’Tselem.) Prisoners recently released from Israeli detention have described the beatings and degrading treatment they received (Amnesty | Reuters | Haaretz).
During the peace process of the mid-1990s, a green ribbon was used as a symbol of republican political prisoners, whose release was one of the major goals in a peace settlement – see this large example from Shantallow, Derry, from 1998. It is still used post-Agreement by physical-force republicans, e.g. End Brit Brutality and Maghaberry Concentration Camp.
The board is on the Meenan Square construction site in the Bogside, Derry. For the INLA board in the background of the wide shot, see Serious Trouble.
This entry chronicles (in reverse order/from latest to earliest) the painting of one of Saïd Hassan’s (ig) contributions to the Painting For Palestine (Fb) project that is currently transforming the International Wall on Divis Street in west Belfast. The piece appears to be inspired by the mass grave in Khan Younis (in the Gaza Strip) in which more than 100 corpses were buried in November (Al Jazeera video | Reuters gallery).
Hassan’s instagram post of his original artwork cites a few lines from Palestinian author Ghassan Kanafani (WP): “Let’s plant them as our martyrs in the womb of this soil thickened with bleeding … there is always room in the ground for another martyr.”
“If I must die/Let it bring hope.” The annual march in remembrance of the victims of Bloody Sunday, 1972, was this year dedicated to the victims of the on-going attack by Israel on the Gaza Strip (Irish News). For the occasion, Free Derry Corner was papered over (by Adam “Spicebag” Doyle – RN | Irish Times) with words from a poem (Xitter) of Palestinian writer Refaat Alareer, who was killed by Israeli forces on December 7th (Al Jazeera | WP).
In January 2024, in response to the prolonged Israeli attack on Gaza, many murals on the “International Wall” on Divis Street were painted out and work began on reproductions of artworks by artists from Palestine and elsewhere in the region. The project was called Painting For Palestine and a Facebook page and GoFundMe page were launched.
According to Bill Rolston (Fb) (who can be seen in the second image, below), there was a plan last Autumn that Palestinian artists would create their own “international wall” and include murals designed by CNR artists. The Hamas attack on October 7 and the subsequent Israeli invasion on Gaza – now ongoing for 108 days – put paid to that project, and instead art by Palestinian painters is being painted in Belfast in support of Palestine. (Here is an NVTv segment on the project.)
The first (left-most) panel will reproduce a mural called ‘The Land Is Ours’ by Mohammed Alhaj, Abdullah Al Najar, Rami Al Safadi, and Abdel Hamid Fares that once stood in a Gaza school; the second, next to the first, is currently blank (see the image above).
Bill Rolston working on The Land Is Ours:
The source image for The Land Is Ours:
The grid and cartoon for a mural from digital artist Saïd Hassan (web):
Another image by digital artist Saïd Hassan, showing soldiers standing over dead children:
Marty Lyons at work on the mural:
A wide shot with the left-hand side of the wall in the foreground:
Four murals are being painted over what were previously Lenár Linn and Hunger Strikers (1916). The originals for these were designed by Ahmad Shaweesh (ig), Raed Qatanani (ig), ? [please get in touch], and Saïd Hassan (web).
Shaweesh’s piece is a deliberately unfinished image of a group of people, perhaps a family, in distress.
Qatanani’s image is a portrait of Soso and Omar Ashour as they sat in a Gaza hospital during the first week of the Israeli invasion.
The original artist of this figure with a phoenix is unknown.
The last of these four murals is by Hassan and shows a woman cooking over an open fire in front of a tent in a refugee camp.
January 17th:
January 20th:
Wide shot of the four pieces on the right-hand side:
“Saoırse don Phalaıstín [freedom for Palestine]/فلسطين حرة [free Palestine]” and “Ireland stands with Palestine/ايرلندا تقف مع فلسطين” – CYM [Connolly Youth Movement (web)] sticker with a mash-up of the Palestinian and Irish flags and a key that represents the keys that about 700,000 Palestinian householders took with them when they fled their homes in the Nakba of 1948.
TUV (Traditional Unionist Voice) has put up placards attacking the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) – including outside the office of DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson – in response to the possibility that the DUP might re-enter Stormont – which has been defunct now for two years – and implement the NI Protocol (BBC | BelTel).
It hasn’t happened yet, but a combination of public dissatisfaction concerning inaction over strikes by transport workers on December 22 and a general strike planned for January 18 (ITv)) and a financial package for pay awards are keeping the pressure on (Shropshire Star).
The Easter lily and the red star mark this graffiti-art-style slogan in Durrow Park, Derry, as republican-socialist; RSYM = Republican Socialist Youth Movement (Fb), IRSP = Irish Republican Socialist Party (web), AFA = Anti-Fascist Action (Fb)). There is a small “Victory to Hamas” graffito to the right.
For the large Arm Saoırse Náısıúnta Na hÉıreann (INLA) board, see Serious Trouble.
The Israeli flag flies outside the ‘Union Jack Souvenir Shop’ on the Newtownards Road, east Belfast, “world flag suppliers” and “British by birthright”.
Extramural Activity 